The Complexities of Firm Valuation

Today’s guest lives in a very interesting space that is becoming a bit of a hot trend in the industry these days. Dave DeVoe is the founder of DeVoe & Co., a practice management consulting firm for RIAs with a focus on business valuation succession planning and facilitating mergers and acquisitions of advisory firms. After his time leading the Schwab Advisor Services Mergers & Acquisitions program—and now working as an independent consultant who runs one of the industry’s leading deal book tracking studies on financial advisor M & A activity—Dave has a deep history in consulting on and tracking the trends of advisory firm mergers and acquisitions and the value of firms themselves.

In this episode, Dave talks about the mechanics of advisory firm deals from the buyer’s perspective, including the main considerations that go into valuation. Listen in to hear his expert perspective on the buyer and seller trends in the industry, the flaws in the traditional 2x revenue valuation estimate for a firm, and why he sees it as both a buyer’s market and a seller’s market right now.

For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/72